Month: May 2018

Day of Action for Nigerian and Ghanaian Diaspora community and ALL those who want to see an end to charter flights to demand that Nigeria and Ghana withdraw all co-operation with the UK’s mass deportation charter flights – that they intervene to STOP the charter flight to Nigeria & Ghana scheduled for Wednesday 30th May 2018

Tuesday is the last full working day before the Home Office fill a charter flight with Nigerians and Ghanaians. those being removed are shackled by their hands and feet with a restraint belt and two guards for each person. These are women and men, some of whom have lived in the UK since childhood, fathers of British children, grandmothers and partners who have no one left in their country of origin, people who have lived in the UK for 15 years, victims of torture, LGBT people and more. Charter flights inflict a deep injustice on our communities. Deportation targets are put before human beings and many are denied due process, deported while their case is still ongoing. THESE CHARTER FLIGHTS MUST STOP!

In the light of the abuse and deportation of the Windrush Generation it is time for Commonwealth countries to withdraw co-operation with these unjust flights.

These are stories of the 15 people we know of in Yarl’s Wood who are at risk of being on Wednesday’s charter flight to Nigeria and Ghana. They include people who have lived in the UK for 17, 15, 14, 13 and 12 years, a gay woman who has been here since she was 12 years old, two couples, several victims of FGM, domestic violence, rape and torture, women who are married or partners with British Citizens and EEA nationals, people who are carers, people who have no one left in Nigeria and people ranging in age from 20’s to 50’s.

1. FA: I have lived in UK since Feb 2006, 17 years. I am a victim of domestic violence, FGM and suffering from high blood pressure which is classified by the Home Office as adult risk level 2. I have been detained in Yarl’s Wood for 7 months. When I first came to the UK with was with my previous husband (a British Citizen) on a spousal visa, I suffered from domestic violence for years, which was deeply traumatic, and when that relationship broke down it meant my right to stay broke as well. I now have a loving partner with EEA citizenship, we have been together for 6 years and living together for 3 but no matter what evidence we submit we are treated as liars. My only sister lives in the UK, we are very close and I love my young nephew very much, I would be devastated to leave them and my partner. We are all treated as liars, no matter what we say, the Home Office is just looking to meet its targets, it is wrong.

Call for Nigerian diaspora community to demand Nigeria withdraw co-operation with these racist, unjust mass deportations.

What you can do:

1. Call, email, Facebook & tweet at the Nigeria High Commission…

Make the point about how Commonwealth citizens of the Windrush Generation have been treated, how many were deported on charter flights? How many Nigerian Students were part of the 50,000 expelled by Theresa May? How many mothers, fathers, grandmothers have been deported on charter flights? How often Britain is returning people whove lived their whole lives since childhood in the UK. It has to stop. Read this petition and statement by Nigerian women in Yarlswood in 2015 who successfully resisted the November charter flight ‘Nigeria Where Is Your Backbone?’

Yesterday Yvette Cooper and members of the Home Affairs Select Committee paid a surprise visit to Yarl’s Wood, above is the account of that visit by Yarl’s Wood detainees and a call on Cooper and the Committee to return to Yarl’s Wood. Yesterday evening we emailed the petition and all 102 signatures to Yvette Cooper and the Home Affairs Select Committee with the following email…

Dear Yvette Cooper and Committee,

Attached is a petition written by detainees in Yarl’s Wood, in just over two hours today following your visit they managed to collect 102 detainee signatures and fax this to us. It tells their account of how they were lied to about your visit, lied to by promises that they would get to speak to you and locked up so they could not approach you. They are furious at how they have been treated today and want you to return to the centre to hear from them.

Yarl’s Wood detainees have been avidly following every session of the Detention Inquiry that is televised on Parliament TV, collectively they have so much knowledge and experience that could and should be added to that inquiry. Not only individual stories of abuse and how they’ve been set up to fail by this system of detention but also how they have been organising, coming together and fighting back against their unjust detention and brutal deportations. The expertise and contribution that current detainees can make to the Detention Inquiry cannot be matched by any contribution from outside detention centres.

Windrush exposes truth of racism at heart of immigration law. Build the movement to reverse racist immigration laws. AMNESTY for ALL immigrants without papers.

The Windrush generation who moved to Britain in the 1950’s and 60’s are regarded by almost everyone as an intrinsic part of British society. Their generation re-built Britain after the war, the health service, the railroads, drove the buses. Making their lives in Britain meant pushing back against the racist attacks and ‘Keep Britain White’ campaigns of the time. To be told after all these years, by the government’s Home Office, that they ‘don’t belong here’ was an overreach that has exposed the racism at the heart of immigration policy to millions of people. As a result Theresa May’s already struggling government has been left vulnerable on three fronts. Firstly the whole policy of attacking immigrants is vulnerable, in particular Theresa May’s defining policy of ‘hostile environment’. Secondly, Brexit is vulnerable. And thirdly, the crisis-ridden government is vulnerable, and it can be brought down. To stop the attacks on immigrants it is necessary to unite all of those under attack from this government.

Extend the Windrush Scheme – Write to your MP

Ask them to take action to get the Windrush Scheme amended (add a sub category to group 5) to cover the Windrush generation’s children, grandchildren and close family who came after 1973. Say why this issue is important to you, direct them to our briefing for more information. We have prepared a template letter but it is important that you use your own words as the site will block repeated copy/paste letters -------> Briefing: https://bit.ly/2uon7KN Template letter: https://bit.ly/2usphc8 Forward their response to contact@movementforjustice.co.uk